The President made the right choice in hiring Dr Vincent Adams

Dear Editor, I do not get to write this often, but here goes: President David Granger got it right on hiring Dr Vincent Adams to head the EPA. Dr Adams’ resume and experience proves that he is qualified for the position. Let’s take a look at his experience.

According to the United States Department of Energy (DoE), Dr Adams served as Deputy Manager of the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO) from August 21, 2016, until his retirement from the DoE in December 2016. He previously served as the Site Director and Federal Project Director (FPD) for the decontamination & decommissioning (D&D) project at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in southern Ohio starting in 2010.

Located in Lexington, Kentucky, the PPPO is charged with the environmental remediation, deactivation, and D&D of the former gaseous diffusion plants at Paducah, Kentucky, and Piketon, Ohio. The PPPO also oversees the Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride (DUF6) Conversion Project, which operates two plants at the Ohio and Kentucky sites to convert more than 700,000 metric tons of DUF6 to a more stable form, for beneficial reuse and/or disposal.

Dr Adams has 40 years of experience in the public and private sectors in the environmental management, groundwater and petroleum production fields, including 30 years with DoE. He served in several positions at the Oak Ridge, Tennessee site for over 18 years, including as Director of the first DoE project to decontaminate and decommission a gaseous diffusion plant. He later served for three years at DoE headquarters as Office Director for the Environmental Management (EM) Groundwater & Soils programme, with responsibilities for developing innovative technologies and engineering approaches to reduce risks and cleanup costs. He was instrumental in standing up and executing the nationwide EM Recovery Act programme.

A career member of the Senior Executive Service, Dr Adams earned a Level 3 FPD certification. He earned a PhD in Environmental Engineering, MSc Degrees in Groundwater Hydrology and Geological Engineering/Petroleum Engineering, and a BSc in Civil Engineering.

In 2012, Dr Adams received the Ohio School Boards Association’s President’s Award.

Editor, I was not surprised that not a single blogger on the SN website objected to Dr Adams’ hiring. I have never seen anyone else get so much support. It must have been the first time in the history of the SN blog posts that there was one hundred percent support for the hiring of a man in any career field. Mr President, keep it up with hiring the best and brightest star in or out of the country.

My hope is that the president will do what one blogger on SN suggested, that, “Unless this EPA appointment is a prelude to a forthcoming appointment as head, on a cabinet ministerial level, of a restructured Guyana Energy Agency to develop and oversee an architecture for our oil derivative industry, then this appointment

is for a job for which Adams is exceedingly overqualified…In fact, he should have been a lead consultant - perhaps in a technical/engineering capacity to underscore the inherent value of our oil resource to socioeconomic enhancement…I can only hope that whatever environmental protection policy initiatives Adams develops, will be incorporated into a restructured energy agency he will later head up.”

Editor, although I am impressed with Dr Adams’s education background, resume and experience, I am more impressed with his humility and how approachable he is. He is friends with the common man and woman. I am grateful to the president for choosing him.

I would like the president to hire another eminently qualified scientist, Dr Jan Mangal. He and Dr Adams would make a great team, and they would be great role models for all Guyanese. Yours faithfully, Anthony Pantlitz